One of the real growth drivers for India is the workforce, yet we find a very large percentage of this in the unorganised sector.Amit Dhawan, who’s taken over as the president-staffing at Randstad India, comes with over two decades of global experience in varied areas including general management, sales, operations and organisational turnaround. Prior to joining Randstad, Dhawan had also been an angel investor, incubating early stage growth companies across sectors including technology, e-commerce, hospitality and education. Dhawan, in his very first interview to ET’s Sreeradha D. Basu spoke on various facets of the staffing business: the growth drivers and the strategy for the road ahead. Edited excerpts:

How has the staffing business been growing for Randstad in India? Which are the sectors you expect to see as the primary drivers of growth in the coming months? Staffing is one of our strategic flagship service offerings in India, in addition to selection and RPO. For us, this business line is growing steadily, ahead of market and above inflation, with a large scale operation and well entrenched footprint.

One of the real growth drivers for India is the workforce, yet we find a very large percentage of this in the unorganised sector. This is where we feel staffing as a business plays a critical role of organising India's large workforce population. As India returns to a path of choppy economic growth, the need for a flexible workforce is more now than before.

We are excited about the opportunities that India holds. Our objective is to grow in what we call the strategic areas of the market – such as "staffing with added value". Out of the 600,000 temporary placements that we get into our books globally, about 60,000 are in India. Organisations do not want to recruit and wait for business to come in today. They hire on a need and demand basis only. Quick turnaround time and high quality candidates at best costs are what they need today and this is what Randstad’s value proposition is.

We see increased traction in sectors like PHL (Pharma, Healthcare, and Life Sciences), Consumer Services (like Retail/FMCG/FMCD), IT/ITeS, Engineering and E-commerce. There is also a spike in demand for 'specialties' - niche functional areas such as sales and trade marketing, healthcare, IT, etc.

India’s staffing market is characterised by a scarcity of resources, increasing operational costs, and price undercutting. With competition getting fiercer in the space, what is Randstad’s strategy for the future? We believe that talent is not a commodity, but a true differentiator. Our strategy has been simplified to the extent where clients have to answer just one question – will the talent be on their payroll (perm) or ours (staffing)? Going forward, our aim is to focus only on high value, high margin jobs where we compete on value and not on price, thus supporting our clients to migrate from staff augmentation to building a smart workforce. At a very large scale, we are a one-stop solution for organisations in their talent strategy and workforce planning.

India is a price sensitive market and the growth potential is immense for staffing players who can experiment and innovate to add value to the both the clients and candidates. The future will belong to the staffing player who is ahead on the curve when it comes to people, process and technology. And, we have made and continue to make significant investments in these areas.

Today, flexi staffing has moved beyond the bottom rungs and is growing up the value chain to include mid-level and top managerial executive roles and even the board of directors. This trend will further grow with initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ by the government, where more jobs will be created in the lower and mid sections. More flexi jobs will be permeated in the entire pyramid and this is indeed a great opportunity for us.

How does the company plan to grow in India – organically, inorganically, or both? India as a market is hugely under penetrated and there are enough opportunities to grow organically. And, being a market leader, mergers and acquisitions have been a part of Randstad's successful growth strategy across the world. In India too, we are always on the lookout for opportunities that would bring a significant value add to the table, which will take us to the next level of growth and help us serve our clients better. If there is an interesting offer from a good strategic partner, we are ready to invest and there is no cap on funding these acquisitions.

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